We're so grateful that you've been a part of SOJOURN in 2022. Thanks to you, we've been able to accomplish some amazing things for our Jewish communities, LGBTQ+ communities, and Southern communities. Let's take a look!

In April 2022, we launched Thrive, a national coalition in collaboration with Keshet to advocate for trans and LGBQ+ youth as they face legislative threats at the state level. 176 Jewish organizations from across the country have signed on to Thrive, and we've been meeting since June on topics like op/ed writing, Judaism and transness, and how to read and track legislation.

In June 2022, we were able to hold Pride Outside, our first in-person gathering in 2 years! We gathered in Atlanta for a musical celebration of our Jewish and LGBTQ+ communities. We were happy to see so many familiar faces there!

This September, SOJOURN came to Houston, TX for the first time! Our amazing program manager McKenzie spent a weekend teaching at Congregation Or Ami, leading a non-binary Hebrew Havdalah with QJews Houston (shown here), and conducting a training for the board of Houston Hillel. We'll be bringing more SOJOURN programming to the Bayou City soon!

Thanks to a grant from Atlanta Pride, we were able to successfully pilot our Jewish Equity Benchmark survey, asking Jewish organizations in Atlanta about their current LGBTQ+ inclusion and belonging practices. We got a 39.3% response rate and reached at least 5,900 community members. We're excited to take what we learned from the pilot and launch the JEB again at a larger scale in 2023!

For the first time in 3 years, we had Atlanta Pride in person! We celebrated Pride Shabbat with the Jewish Federation of Atlanta, met so many new people at our Pride Festival booth, and took to the streets in our Xanadu-themed float during the Pride Parade. It was wonderful to be surrounded by so much joy again!

In October, SOJOURN launched Quest Ed, our unapologetically queer, Jewish, Dungeons and Dragons Actual Play podcast that walks through the Sex Ed Queeries sex ed curriculum. So far, Quest Ed has reached over 250 people, and the podcast's reach is still growing! Stay tuned for more episodes coming in 2023.

We continued to run the vital programming that SOJOURN is known for in Atlanta and across the South, educating our communities on LGBTQ+ welcoming, celebration, and belonging. Check out what our community had to say about our educational programming.

We made good on our promises during last year's Capacity Building Campaign and, in December, brought on Lisa Stoch (she/her) as our new Director of Development. Lisa brings a wealth of knowledge and experience and is so excited to be a part of the SOJOURN community.

SOJOURN accomplished so much in 2022, and we're even more excited for 2023. In particular, we're happy to announce that Purim Off Ponce, our signature fundraiser, will be back in person on March 11, 2023! 

Thank you so much for being a part of the SOJOURN family this year. We are so grateful for you. Here's to a wonderful year ahead!